An article I wrote has been published! Very excited that this has happened and grateful for the opportunity. The article is about using self care as a way to begin coping with the stress that being a parent of a alcohol/drug addicted child brings.

Hello friends! I know it’s been a good long while since I’ve posted. Honestly, I’ve struggled with some serious depression the last few years. Life has certainly not been easy.

I had a 1000+ word post written up last night. Letting you all know what’s been going on in this crazy world we all live in. When it came time to edit it today and post it I realized that I hadn’t saved it!! How frustrating!

There’s no way that I can rewrite all those words and relive all those emotions that came rushing to the surface while I was doing the writing.

So….

H got clean in early 2011 and came home, pregnant. I was there with her when my beautiful grandson was born. She did really well for over a year then relapsed. Got clean, relapsed. Rinse and repeat.

They live with us. When she is using she stays away. My grandson is three now. Smart and healthy and well-loved. They live here so that I can ascertain whether she is using and I can be sure that he is safe and well.

But I am tired. And sometimes in the darkest hours when everyone is asleep and there is no one to hear, I cry.

It’s funny how, as time goes on, I find myself obsessing less and less about H. How and what she is doing is no longer within my sphere of control.

I still do worry at times…like when she admits to still using oxy’s even though they don’t get her high anymore, she can’t function physically without them. Or when she tells me she is still drinking. Or that she is being sexually harrassed at work and will only “think” about filing charges because she’s scared to do so. Or that they haven’t replaced the window in their apartment (from when they got robbed a couple of weeks ago) and it’s cold and now she is sick.

As a mother, how could I not worry? So I do but only for a bit. Then I can let it go. God has looked after her so far. All I can do is pray he continues.

I’ve spent most of the last three weeks trying to let go. Let go of the pain, sorrow, anger and frustration. The hopes and dreams for my daughter. I’ve been trying to sink into acceptance and detachment. It’s been hard and I’ve definitely tripped up a few times. But I’m getting there. I may not actually ever even get “there” but as long as I’m creeping ever closer, that’s okay.

H came home for a week over Thanksgiving. I was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing, but all in all it went fairly well. She wasn’t demanding or obnoxious. She seemed genuinely grateful to be home. She was sober when she arrived and sober when she left but she did use one night that she was here.

I was so disappointed but not really surprised. She had gone out the night before and was supposed to come home but I got a text at 8 pm or so saying that she was staying out. She didn’t come home until 5 pm the next day. She walked in with dilated pupils, the shakes and her mouth hanging open. I took one look at her and said “You used.” I could tell she was going to lie but she must have decided it wouldn’t be in her best interest to do so and she told me the truth. If she hadn’t I was fully prepared to haul her skinny butt to the door. She was lucky that I didn’t anyway.

H spent the rest of her time here at home or out and about with us. It was nice and pleasant. But there is so much mistrust on my side of the fence that there was part of me that couldn’t wait to put her back on the bus. The stress of having her around ground me down…as much as I love her.

Since she has gone back I feel as though I’ve given her permission to live her life. To make her own choices and mistakes. To live with her own consequences. She texted me yesterday for money for her Smart Serve for a job. I said no. And it sat okay with me. I didn’t get anxious or regretful. This is good. A major step forward.

Life in the face of your child’s addiction is like stumbling around in the dark never knowing when you are going to get tripped up or slammed upside the head.

She called today for the first time in almost a week. I had heard of her on Monday when the bf’s Mom called me. He had given her a story about H stealing his phone and taking off on Sunday evening. When I mentioned this to H she denied everything. Said she hadn’t been there since Friday or Saturday, that she was couch surfing. She told me that she had been kidnapped and held at knife point (at some point, not sure when this occured). I don’t know if I believe her or not and really does it even matter? If she is telling the truth, my advice (to go to the police) will be unwanted and unheeded. If she won’t listen what can I do? I told her to go to her aunt’s where she would be safe and she told me that she’d think about it. She wanted some money of course.

Do I sound cold? I’m not really. The only way I can cope with any of this is to tuck it away into a corner of my mind and lock it up tight. I need to cut myself off from her emotionally. I don’t know if she’s seeing her psychiatrist or taking the meds. That part of the story changes all the time. She’s lied so much…

The Al-Anon meeting I went to was okay. It would be nice if I could find one where there were more parents of adult alcoholics/addicts. Everyone there had issues with their spouse. I’ll try a different meeting next week.